PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA/SUSSKIND/JANOS STARKER - Dvorak/Cello Concerto

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Artist: PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA/SUSSKIND/JANOS STARKER
Title: Dvorak/Cello Concerto
Cat No: HIQLP045
Format: LP

• Recorded in stereo on 11, 12, 16 & 17 July 1956, Kingsway Hall, London
• Produced by the legendary Walter Legge
• Engineered by Robert Gooch & Michael Grafton-Green
• Pressed on 180g vinyl to audiophile standards
• Using the original EMI presses by The Vinyl Factory in Hayes, England
• Featuring the original album artwork

By the mid 1950s the Hungarian cellist, Janos Starker (1924-2013), was already a legend and principal cellist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Reiner. EMI producer Walter Legge arranged for Starker to record all the essential works in his repertoire and this stereo recording of the Dvorak concerto, made at London's Kingsway Hall in 1956 has become a highly collectable LP, here freshly minted from the original stereo masters.

As the Telegraph obituary put it: Starker possessed a phenomenal technique. His bow attacked the strings with both a ravishing intensity and a deep, biting edge. He was equally startling to watch, his piercing black eyes glaring out from beneath deep black eyebrows. But he wasn't all scary - many a recital programme involved him performing in short sleeves, puffing on a cigarette (he smoked 60 a day) and sipping scotch, interspersed with sharing his low opinions on conductors.

Cut at Abbey Road Studios from the original stereo analogue master tapes with the Neumann VMS82 lathe fed an analogue pre-cut signal from a specially adapted Studer A80 tape deck with additional 'advance' playback head, making the cut a totally analogue process.

In the original October 1957 mono review in GRAMOPHONE, Lionel Salter somewhat grudgingly conceded that Starker's Dvorak was undeniably a great performance... but by the time the stereo version was reviewed in January 1959, he seemed more enthusiastic: Starker's playing is of great virtuosity and often of great poetry... and concluded the LP was certainly among the leading recorded performances of this wonderful concerto.

TRACKLISTING

Side One
CONCERTO IN B MINOR (Dvorak, Op.104)
1. First Movement: Allegro
2. Second Movement: Adagio ma non troppo

JANOS STARKER ('Cello)
and THE PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA
Conducted by WALTER SUSSKIND

Side Two
CONCERTO IN B MINOR (Dvorak, Op.104)
1. Third Movement: Finale: Allegro moderato - Andante - Allegro vivo
2. ELEGIE, Op.24 (Faure, Op.24)

JANOS STARKER ('Cello)
and THE PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA
Conducted by WALTER SUSSKIND

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